A/N: Thanks for the great reviews!
Wow, I'm writing fast! Okay, um, here's Chapter 4. I was planning on formally introducing Liana (Kim's Mom) in this chapter but she ended up being just a phone call.
There is a very thin line in decision-making when one must cross over from logic into intuition, from knowledge to feeling, from thoughts to instinct. Perhaps, Natalie concluded, that was why Rory—hands down the smartest person she knew—thought that she knew that Jared was faking his newfound affection for Kim; Rory was a logical, rational, reasonable, and unimaginative person to a fault. It was logical that Jared freaking Cameron be interested only in playing the shy girl who liked him for money; it was rational to believe that Kim would come out of this heartbroken; it was reasonable to suspect Jared of ulterior motives, to disbelieve the truth of his affections; it was unimaginative to not hope that, against all logic, Jared had somehow noticed Kim freaking Connweller and was currently as enamored with her as she was with him. Natalie wasn't so narrow-minded as Rory appeared to be—she wouldn't deny the devoted awe she had seen in his eyes as he looked at Kim; she had seen it, after all. Sure, it made no sense whatsoever, and the whole school was abuzz with it, but really, Natalie knew Kim had been dreaming of this for ten years; geez, the girl seriously deserved some action after all this time. All Natalie hoped for was that Kim wouldn't fall too hard too fast; just because Natalie was a little worried that Rory was right about Jared only being interested in Kim as a joke (Rory nearly always was right—of course, Rory thought she always was), and if Jared happened to break Kim, Natalie would be the only one to really care enough to pick up the pieces.
Natalie voiced her opinion of Kim's newfound situation with Jared after school while they waited with Rory in Cami—Kim's Camry—for Alex and Seth to drive them up to Forks for soccer conditioning or something. They did this on the days soccer practice was too early for the boys to take the one bus from La Push to Forks. "I mean, if he's interested, go on and be with him, but be careful, okay?" Natalie told Kim from the driver's seat—Kim had kept true to her promise and Natalie would be the one driving home.
Kim herself was in a bit of a daze. It was like floating on a cloud; she felt above the world somehow. Untouchable. Invincible. Confident. Every bit the girl she'd always wished she could be.
It all came crashing down with a the shrill ring of her cell phone coming from under Natalie's seat. Natalie had jumped, the sudden jolt causing her sensitive nose to bleed. Pulling out the old Nokia, Kim flipped it open.
"Hello?" Kim asked, slightly wary of who was on the other side.
"Thank God, Kimberly. It shouldn't take so long to answer a phone!" A shrill voice practically shouted in Kim's ear; she winced. It was her mother, Liana, who hands down had to be the most demanding person who ever existed.
"Hi, Mom," Kim muttered, looking around as if looking for a possible escape route. Natalie murmured something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "The Witch is calling". Kim tactfully chose to ignore that comment; Natalie had very low opinions of her mother, which were unfounded because, Kim knew, her mother only wanted what was best for them.
"Don't 'Hi, Mom' me, young lady! I just heard from Sabrina Carlton's mother that you were all over some boy in your class! What kind of behavior is that, Kimberly?"
"Mom, that's not true—"
"So you're lying! Are you trying to ruin the family name? I swear, you've just gotten into my bad graces, young lady. I'll punish you when you get home!"
"I didn't do anything!" Kim protested, knowing it was useless.
"Don't even try that, Kimberly! I cannot believe you! Here I am, slaving away for you ungrateful children all day and this is how you repay me? It's a give-give family, Kimberly, and it's time you put some effort around the house or did something useful for yourself!"
"But—"
"Goodbye, Kimberly!" Thankfully, Liana hung up and Kim was given a moment to slam her head into the dashboard of her car. Reality was back; her mother bursting Kim's happy Jared-bubble she'd existed in for the
"Dude, your mom's a bitch," Natalie remarked truthfully, looking taken aback.. The backseat door opened, Alex bursting into the car to shove his twin out of the way, Seth trailing quietly behind him on his crutches.
"Kim, Fred Lionel was saying that you and Jared Cameron—" Alex began, his lips quirking upwards into an evil smirk on his handsome face.
"Alexander, how immature are you?" Rory came to Kim's defense mostly on her own agenda: she and Alex did everything they could to annoy one another.
"Hi, Kim, hi, Natalie." Seth greeted amiably, genuinely happy to see them. "How are you?"
"Good, Seth. How are you?" Kim asked back, ignoring Alex and Rory has their squabble escalated into a fight.
"Wait, Natalie's driving? Kim, do you want us dead? She drives like a maniac on hard drugs!" Alex looked incredulously from Kim to Natalie, just noticing that it wasn't his sister driving.
"You wouldn't know how a maniac on hard drugs drives like!" Natalie snapped, revving the engine and putting the car in drive.
"Laura's worse." Kim said honestly.
"You're just jealous because the state knows you're too stupid to ever legally drive!" Rory snarled at Alex. Seth quickly jumped in, engaging Alex in a conversation about a girl named Vera who apparently liked Alex to distract him from Rory. Seth had always been the mediator between Alex and Rory; Kim recalled doing a project in sophomore English on Freudian Trios using Alex, Seth, and Rory. A Freudian trio had three parts—Ego, Superego, and Id; the Superego was the one who acted as the critical, rational-minded conscience of the group, essentially the analyzer and the brains; the Id was the one who acted on instinct, emotion, and impulse; the Ego was the one who mediated between the two, the bridge between instinct and thought. Rory, Alex, and Seth fit the bill for Superego, Id, and Ego so well that Kim had gotten an A on the project.
"Anyway, Kim, are you and Jared a thing now?" Alex asked, finally bored of his conversation about Vera.
"Well…uh, not exactly…" Kim squirmed, wishing she were driving so she'd have an excuse not to answer.
"He's started hanging out with Sam, isn't he?" Alex ignored Kim, moving onto the next source of information. Kim privately thought that Alex was turning out to be a bit of a gossipy old lady; he couldn't keep a secret to save his life and certainly liked to talk.
"Yes," Seth answered, clenching his jaw, his seemingly smile faltering. Sam Uley had practically been Seth's brother—he'd even planned on marrying Leah, so it would have been official—and to say Seth had been crushed by Sam's betrayal would have been putting it lightly. Of course, Leah had taken it worse, since Sam had really betrayed her and not Seth, but Seth had not entirely warmed to the idea of Sam with his second cousin Emily yet.
"Aren't they on drugs or something? I mean, steroids are nasty and everything, but man! I'd kill to be buff like them!" Alex said in admiration, looking at the lean muscles on his body with distaste.
"I bet they are! Maybe then we'll get to see what a maniac on hard drugs driving looks like!" Rory said, faking enthusiasm. Alex glared at her.
"I really don't know what he was thinking, dumping Leah for Emily. I mean, Emily's nice and all, and she makes some mean muffins, not to mention she was real nice-looking, you know, before her accident, but Leah is hot. I just don't see the logic!" Alex complained, either ignoring or not noticing the nauseated look on Seth's face.
"Can we never call my sister—or my cousin—hot ever again, please?" Seth asked, his voice strained. Alex looked over at him in honest confusion.
"What's up with you, man?" He asked, his lack of tact not helping his situation.
"Alex, you're so stupid! He doesn't want to hear how hot you think his sister is! It'd be like him going on and on about Laura or me or Natalie! Or even Kim!" Rory snapped, smacking her brother across the back of the head with an AP Chemistry book.
"Dude, I don't own him! He can jack off to whoever he likes—"
"LOVELY WEATHER, DON'T YOU THINK, KIM? I THINK I'LL TURN ON SOME MUSIC!" Natalie said too loudly. She turned on the music, grimacing as Cyndi Lauper blasted from the speakers. "So not in the mood," she said, popping out the CD and jamming another one in. Kelly Clarkson's voice filled the car, causing everyone besides Kim and Natalie to groan loudly.
The rest of the ride was rather uneventful beyond Kelly Clarkson and Natalie making wild turns and almost hitting a dog. Luckily for Seth and Alex, there was only seven or so minutes left in the ride to Forks, so they weren't forced to endure Kelly Clarkson or Natalie's driving for too long before they could escape. Unfortunately, the girls couldn't return to La Push yet because Kim and Natalie worked at Seth's family's diner as waitresses after school and on weekends for Elizabeth Fuller, Seth and Leah's aunt, who ran the diner. Technically, Elizabeth (or Liz, as she liked to be called) co-owned the diner with her brothers Harry and Daniel, but they didn't put much work into it beyond Daniel doing the taxes (he was an accountant) and Harry paying to have the place kept in good shape. Usually Rory came with them, studying quietly at her table in the corner.
"Hiya Nat! How's it going, Kim? Howdya do, Rory?" Liz said when they had entered the diner's kitchen from the back door.
"Hi, Liz," Natalie said, going into the small bathroom to change into her uniform. Rory just nodded solemnly, walking to her solitary table.
"So, Kim, I heard from Brady today that you and one of Sam Uley's boys—" Brady was Liz's son and Seth's cousin, in the eight grade.
"Oh, Liz, not you, too!"
"What do you mean? I was gonna congratulate you, you know! Jared's a fine-looking boy, and Harry says he's a good kid. Of course, the rumors aren't good but I stand by my brother's judgement," Liz said, nodding her dark head enthusiastically as she grilled sandwiches.
"Oh, well, thanks. I guess," Kim said awkwardly, wishing Natalie would hurry up and get out of the bathroom. Liz was still looking at her expectantly, as if waiting for something. Kim blinked when Liz added, "...and? What happened?"
"Well…uh, in first period he randomly stared at me and then he asked me out to this party thing and asked me to eat lunch with him and Paul Lahote so I did. And then for the rest of the day he met me outside of all of my classes and walked me to my locker and carried my books. He likes Star Wars and likes doritos and he even offered me a ride home but I already have a car!"
"Wow. Productive day," Natalie remarked, emerging from the bathroom in her blue waitressing uniform. Kim rolled her eyes, taking her own uniform and going in to change.
The other waitresses on duty, Maya and Andrea, came back into the kitchen; Maya to put on her coat—it was January, after all—and leave; Andrea to give Liz an order. They both greeted Kim kindly; they were sort of friends, but Maya and Andrea were both working to pay their way through Peninsula College in Port Angeles while living at home in Forks.
Kim really didn't mind waitressing all that much; of course, the way Natalie talked about it, it was a job from hell. Somehow (and luckily for Kim), all of the difficult customers always sat in Natalie's stations. Noisy children, demanding mothers, picky customers, people who were just plain rude…Natalie had seen it all, and lived to tell the tale.
"Kim, you won't believe who just sat down at my station!" Natalie exclaimed from behind the bar as Kim fixed coffee and lemon cake for some customer.
Looking over Natalie's shoulder, Kim nearly squealed in delight; she barely managed to contain herself to say, relatively nonchalantly: "Sam Uley, Jared, and Paul?"
"How'd you guess?" Natalie looked incredulous. Indeed, the gigantic, muscled masses of Jared, Paul, and Sam were all squished into a booth and looking over menus. Kim suspected that whoever usually cooked for them—probably Leah Clearwater's cousin the boyfriend-stealer who had gotten mauled by a bear—was unavailable, so they were going to the next nearest source of food. After being paired with Paul for a disastrous project in a Home Ec class, Kim knew that he could burn water and cause potentially fatal food poisoning; she wasn't just shooting in the dark when she suspected that neither Jared nor Sam could cook either.
"Telepathy," Kim smirked to herself. Natalie looked around, turned back to Kim, and rolled her eyes in one fluid motion.
"Yeah, right."
"I'm serious."
"Don't play that with me, I'm not stupid."
"You look stupid."
"You look stupider."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do not."
"Look, I bet they'll request you as their server, so you ought to just cut to the chase and take that booth for me." Natalie said, attempting to subtly edge around Kim so that she could have better leverage to push Kim in the direction of Jared and his friends.
"They won't."
"They will."
"Won't."
"Will you two grow up already?" A pencil soared through the air, hitting Natalie squarely on the side of the head. Rory glared at them from her table before returning to whatever hell—excuse me, AP Calculus—she was doing. Natalie grumbled, rubbing the side of her head with an annoyed grimace on her face. They both were silent for a moment, before Kim muttered: "Won't."
"Fine, I'll prove it to you!" Natalie snapped, snatching her pen from Kim and taking out her waitress's book, stalking over to their table in a huff. Kim shrugged, delivering the coffee and lemon cake to a smiling Mr. Peterson.
"I'm Natalie. I'll be your sever this evening. What can I get you to drink, or would you like more time to decide?" Natalie recited the 'Waitress's Script' in a bored, flat tone.
"Uh…can we get Kim as—" Jared began, looking awkward. He was trying to avoid hurting Natalie's feelings, but when Natalie practically sprinted away.
"Told ya told ya told ya! I told you so!" Natalie waltzed away, smirking to herself and muttering, "Always right, I am."
Kim stumbled over to Jared's table, feeling his eyes on her. Walking slowly and trying very hard not to face plant right in front of him. Thank God her uniform didn't include heels or God forbid, roller skates. "Hi," she said, blushing slightly. He smiled widely at her, putting the phrase 'grinning from ear to ear' to shame.
"Hi, Kim," he sighed, like her name was sacred. Paul made several gagging noises, and received a stern glare from Sam.
"Um…I'm Kim, and I'll be your waitress today," she said. "Are you ready to order?"
"Yeah…can I have three cheeseburgers, two orders of cheese fries, two orders of onion rings, with a side of coleslaw, and a large Coke? Please?" Jared asked, his eyes never leaving his menu. Kim scribbled that down, not wanting to judge him on his odd eating habits.
"I'll have the same thing, but with three orders of onion rings, and two grilled cheese sandwiches." Paul said, not bothering to look up from his menu.
"White or wheat?" Kim asked, her pen poised over her notepad. Paul put some serious thought into his decision, like world peace depended on his choice, before decided on white. Sam, too, ordered a mountainous amount of food. Kim couldn't help but raise her eyebrows as she read out their order for them, with them adding more food as she read. Kim went back to the kitchen, giving Liz the orders and ignoring Liz's whistle in surprise at the sheer amount the "La Push gang" had ordered.
"You'd think they were storing away for winter or something," Natalie remarked as she helped Kim carry the enormous amounts of food out to their table—each "gang" member had a separate tray to himself.
"How are they not fat?" Rory asked, looking up from her table and staring, effectively gobsmacked, at the three boys—men, really—scarf down the food in record time. Paul glared over at her over on of his burgers, before going on to stuff the entire thing into his mouth. He laughed through his mouthful of food at the disgusted expression. Jared noticed the shared looks of revulsion on Rory, Natalie, Kim, and the other waitress, Andrea, he quickly smacked Paul across the back of the head, muttering something like, "That's Kim's sister, you idiot!" To which Paul replied something suspiciously like: "You haven't even gotten into her pants yet and you're whipped". Kim was sure she would have to break up a brawl at that point; Jared looked simply murderous. His face was contorted in rage, rough tremors rocking his body.
"Jared, calm down now. Paul, you do not say things like that about Kim, or Emily. Ever. Got it?" Sam practically snarled at Paul, who looked slightly abashed, and to Kim's immense surprise, he actually listened. Jared, too, had calmed down immensely and was looking apologetically at Kim, as if he was personally embarrassed that she had to see him like that.
Wait a minute…Emily! That was the girl-who-had-gotten-mauled-by- a-bear-and-was-a-boyfriend-stealing-cousin's name. Emily Young. Yes, it all came back to Kim now. She remembered Alex going on (and on and on and on) about how hot Seth's cousin Emily was when she had come to visit a year or two ago. God, Alex was such a boy.
"Hiya, Kim!" Natalie must have sensed an awkward moment, because she plunged in with her own conversation "Ah. If it isn't Jared freaking Cameron, back for another chance to best me at playful banter. No? I'll still serve you some, my treat. Hello, Paul, Sam. What's up?" Not waiting for a response, Natalie led Kim away. "Kim, would you do me a favor? Those guys over there are going all perv on my ass, so if you could…" Natalie said as Kim shook her head, a smirk on her face. "Please? I'll owe you!"
"You already owe me."
"I'll love you forever!"
"You better."
"Um…please?"
"No."
"Fine. Maybe I'll innocently mention to Jared about the dead fish incident…" Natalie trailed off, turning around as if she planned on going over to their table. Kim's eyes widened comically in fear.
"You wouldn't."
"Take the pervy table, then."
"No!"
"Fine, then. You know, I feel bad for that fish. He boldly went where no fish has ever gone before! And where no one else has gone, for that matter—"
"Natalie, will you drop it?" Kim glanced at Jared's table, willing him to not have heard Natalie.
"I still can't believe you didn't notice a slimy, dead fish in your girl par—" Natalie guffawed loudly, slapping her knee.
"You say what I think you're going to say and I'll bash your head in with this napkin dispenser!" Kim threatened, brandishing a napkin dispenser over Natalie's head menacingly.
"All right, I yield! I surrender!" Natalie theatrically waved a white napkin to emphasize this point.
"Natalie Wright, you had better not be fighting with napkin dispensers again! I told you, you're still on probation from last time!" Liz called from the kitchen loudly, causing Kim to drop the napkin dispenser on Natalie's head, her volatile nose beginning to bleed as she grumbled.
"Crazy lady has a sixth sense, I swear!" she mumbled to herself as Kim laughed and moved to fill up a glass of coke. Jared and his friends were done surprisingly fast, each leaving a wad of bills on the table before disappearing, though Jared gave Kim a rueful smile as he left.
"That boy has got it bad for you, girl." Liz brandished a spatula at Kim as she and Natalie put on their coats and prepared to leave the diner. Alex and Seth had come back in, boasting of Alex's prowess (Alex) and complaining about having a sprained ankle meaning you had to do two hours of push ups and planks (Seth).
Kim pretended that she hadn't heard Liz's observation, turning her back to the older Quileute woman and smiling wistfully to herself. If only, Kim thought sadly, sighing softly and following Natalie out of the kitchen. But it's too good to be true.
A/N: Isn't the dead fish in the swimsuit gross? It happened to a friend of mine, which is a hilarious story that I... just had to put in this story for some reason. Review!